Me niether. We don't have hardly any depth at the linebacker position right now. If Cushing goes down again, we will be in a bind. We probably need to spend a top 4 pick on a linebacker.

With the #1 pick, I hope we draft either Manziel or Clonwey. I'm fine with either. It would be sweet if we traded down to 4 or 5 or something and drafted Manziel there and picked up an extra 4th or 5th rounder or something.

Jadeveon Clowney is such a freakish athlete I believe he can play defensive right end or outside linebacker in Romeo Crennel's 3-4 defense. Crennel himself mentioned it won't always be a pure 3-4 defense and there will be times they use four down lineman as well. He has experience coaching both so whatever helps us win games. I'm under the belief that Romeo Crennel just wants to assemble as much defensive talent as possible and he'll find a way to put them in the best position to succeed. We need a dominating defense to reclaim the AFC South division title from the Colts.



The Texans did a great job filling out their defensive backfield depth signing safeties Kendrick Lewis and Chris Clemons. Even if we released a veteran like Danieal Manning we'd still be okay because I think D.J. Swearinger is ready to emerge as a ballhawking safety in his second season. He's an excellent athlete at the strong safety position but just had a trial by fire experience on a bad team as a rookie.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10687960/danieal-manning-houston-texans-asked-take-pay-cut

The Texans asked Danieal Manning to take a pay cut a few days ago and I've heard nothing since. At 32 years old and coming off a major knee injury last season I'm pretty sure he'd rather leave and play for a Super Bowl contender. It's possible he has nothing left in the tank anyways.

Regardless, I don't think we have a pressing need at safety entering the draft. It would be a luxury to snag a young guy in the late rounds. Our front seven on defense is where the battles are going to be won or lost. We need a strong pass rush if we want to have a great defense.

"I love his game," Clowney said of Watt. "He can help me, and I can help him, hopefully. I've watched his game, in situations he gets double teams, triple teams on him, too. That could help me be a bigger factor on that defense."

If Houston indeed makes Clowney the first pick of the draft, expect Clowney's locker to be awfully close to Watt's. Texans owner Bob McNair said last month that Watt could make an ideal mentor for the draft's most promising defensive player. Clowney has said he believes he should be the top overall pick.

At least we got a lot younger at safety. With guys who are known to stay on the field and play all 16 games.
Chris Clemons for example, started and played in all 16 games for the past two seasons with the Dolphins.
Kendrick Lewis played in all 16 games with the Kansas City Chiefs in two of the past three years (2011 & 2013).

John McClain ‏@McClain_on_NFL 35m
Texans have 3 SS in Chris Clemons, D.J. Swearinger and Eddie Pleasant.

John McClain ‏@McClain_on_NFL 35m
Texans saved $4.5 million on cap by waiving Manning, making them more than $13 million under the cap.

John McClain ‏@McClain_on_NFL 43m
When Manning declined to take a pay reduction the Texans wanted, they signed FA SS Chris Clemons, which made Manning expendable.

We can actually start experienced veterans in Kendrick Lewis at free safety and Chris Clemons at strong safety.
That would allow D.J. Swearinger more time to learn and grow if he's not ready to take the next step in 2014.

Starting Kendrick Lewis isn't something you want to do.

I figured he had the inside track to starting since he played with Romeo Crennel a few years ago and is familiar with some of the same schemes on defense. He looked good against the Texans during that 17-16 Chiefs win at Arrowhead last year. He made a couple of big plays in that game. I know it ain't saying much since that was Case Keenum's first NFL start in a hostile environment and that Chiefs pass rush made it easy for him. But I expect the Texans pass rush to be much improved this year if we draft Jadeveon Clowney.

sup mart? still LOVING Houston, I respect that!!
Keep up the quality anal-ysis

Really like this draft, but it's unrealistic.

Franchise QB, 1st round talent in Ealy who would play OLB, solid OT in the 3rd round, beast NT, solid CB, solid TE, a good backup QB, don't know much about him but Brett Kollman from BRB loves him, depth S, needed a FB, and Josey is a good RB.

rofl.

delusional aggy thinks manziel is going #1